150 THE entomologist's record. 



present. The next in order, H. i6-guttata, is said to frequent young 

 birches and other trees, but none of my correspondents record any 

 capture of this species. H. i ^-guttata, L. can hardly be considered 

 common, as it never turns up in any numbers. It occurs in the 

 London district (that is to say, the district as recently defined very 

 properly by the City of London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society), Esher (on wild sage), Farnham, etc. Three specimens were 

 captured by Mr, H. G. Cuthbert in the Dublin district during the 

 autumn of 1 89 1. H. i2)-guttata abounds in fir plantations in south of 

 England and elsewhere. Two of the series exhibited were sent me by 

 Mr. Cuthbert, who captured them in DubHn district, in autumn of 

 1 89 1. H. cojiglobata, L. (C \\-piinctata, L.) is found commonly by 

 sweeping sides of lanes, banks of nettles, etc., everywhere. H. 

 22-pimctata is generally common in Surrey and elsewhere on banks and 

 sometimes on nettles, — G. A. Lewcock. 



CoREMiA FERRUGATA AND uNiDENTARiA. — The question as to the 

 specific distinctness or otherwise of these two common GEOMEXRyE 

 has long been an open one, but few attempts seem to have been made 

 to arrive at any definite conclusion. Newman's remarks {^British 

 Moths, p. 170) are no doubt well known to most British lepidopterists, 

 and need not be quoted in full. In effect, he states that we have two 

 species, exceedingly alike except in colour, but not indistinguishable, 

 unidentaria having occasionally a " purple-red median band very much 

 resembling that of C. ferrugata "; but he adds that Guenee combines 

 the two on account of Sepp having figured both varieties as bred from 

 the same caterpillar; and that according to his (Newman's) own 

 observation the two caterpillars "are extremely similar in all their 

 characters." No doubt these remarks have given rise to many experi- 

 ments, but very little seems to have been put on record. Mr. Sydney 

 Webb has obligingly furnished me with a short outline of the history of 

 the question. He says {in Utt.): — " It is really curious how history repeats 

 itself. When first collecting I learnt that unidentaria and ferrugata 

 were forms of one moth ; then Stainton's Manual came out and we 

 had two species ; doubts were thrown upon these and the two almost 

 merged together again ; at all events, soon afterwards we were told 

 that unidentaria had red banded examples and ferrugata black ones. 

 No doubt in collections the species were very much mixed, and when 

 sales came on at Stevens' and Sotherby's rooms, these series were as 

 eagerly sought after as lots of vars. now, not for their rarity, but 

 intending purchasers, trusting to well known collections being rightly 

 named, so purchased with avidity these lots to be certain their own 

 insects were correct. Then came a time when a little more light was 

 thrown upon the subject, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing ; 

 all red unidentaria were thrown out from collectors' series as doubtful 

 — Knaggs repudiated them ; Newman, a good general entomologist, 

 but no lepidopterist, could say nothing but follow the lead of others 

 before him ; and Stainton had devoted himself to micros. So things 

 gradually drifted into the copying age of literature of entomology, 

 combined with the crude observations of young observers. ... It 

 thus behoves us now to check (from these inaccuracies constantly 

 repeated) all the older statements of entomologists." 



Going on the lines suggested in the sentence last quoted, I have 



